Every season there are more and more “how to make money doing what you love” programs with really compelling sales pages. And while I’ve written before on the subject of what icks me out about The Glorification of More, what I want to talk about here is how hard it is to assess our own business needs and our own abilities in the face of so many confidently-presented program offers.

The sales page script is something like this: I used to have the same problem you have but then I solved it and you can too if you do as I do. Click here to buy.

When we read a powerful sales page, sometimes it’s hard to hear our own voices.

I know I sometimes think “Oh, maybe I need THAT?” when, before hearing about a certain program, I’d been pretty sure I needed something else. Or – ha! – that I hadn’t needed anything.

Because I don’t know enough about the solution, I have to trust that if the “problem” the expert describes having solved sounds a lot like mine, then her solution will work for me. It seems like reasonable logic. And in the absence of other information, it’s really all I have to work with.

But a sales page can’t know what we know (and sometimes, we’re not sure we can either).

What that expert needed to learn (and then teach) may not be what you need to learn or what I need to learn. I wish sales pages wouldn’t presume to know what we need to learn, or speak with such authority on the subject, but I don’t think it’s malevolence – more a case of everything looking like a nail when you’re a hammer.

So what to do about this? Well, I’ve been studying self-employment for several years and have had the privilege of seeing behind the scenes of small businesses that are successful and those that are struggling and, from my vantage point, clear patterns have emerged.

I’ve also identified an order to these skills. Each lays a more solid foundation for the one that follows. (In my case, I had a good handle on clear communication and client empathy but because I was weak in understanding sustainable pricing, I struggled.)

1. Client empathy

Successful small business owners know their clients and feel their clients. Because their understanding is empathetic, they offer the specific services that are needed and communicate them in a way that makes their marketing compassionate (and compelling).

2. A solid understanding of sustainable pricing methods

Successful small business owners know how to price their offerings. They use basic math, taking much of the emotion right out of it.

3. Clear communication

Successful small business owners know how to explain what they do clearly, genuinely, and originally so that people understand, remember, and tell others. It’s not about scripts; it’s about clarity and, ultimately, kindness.

(The website writing workbooks in the Pink Elephant Academy Bookstore are designed for exactly this purpose, and How to Write a Lovable Homepage is our best-seller.)

4. Website savvy

Successful small business owners don’t necessarily know how to code their own websites from scratch (although that’s a handy skill if you’ve got the time and interest) but they do know how to do (or delegate) basic maintenance and how to organize the content of their site. The experience and design of their websites reflect the spirit and heart of their businesses. Their websites do a lot of the work for them (and sometimes, all of the work).

5. Community building

There are a lot of sales programs that can teach you “techniques” for closing deals but I find it feels much better and is far more sustainable to be surrounded by people who like and support you. Successful small business owners may or may not have big communities, but the people who like/follow/read them want to be there and are enthusiastic. There are a few different means of reaching out and building community: email marketing, blogging, social media, and public relations are four key ones. Get good at just one (and then layer in another when you’re interested in trying something new).

6. A healthy relationship with money

So many of us have ideas about money that don’t serve us well. We believe people in helping professions shouldn’t make much or that to focus on money is “bad” or “greedy” or we feel unworthy so we over- or under-spend. We can be afraid of financial success and we can be afraid of poverty and sometimes we don’t even know what mental scripts are running that are taking up valuable real estate in our beautiful minds. Successful small business owners recognize and ignore their own scripts, knowing that having a healthy relationship with money is the only way to open ourselves to receiving it and being conscious stewards of it.

7. Productivity

Successful small business owners have systems and/or support people in place so that they can be primarily focused on doing their great work in the world. They know how to optimize their personal rhythms and schedules to create a lot.

8. Personal Resource Management

Successful small business owners know it’s not selfish to take care of themselves – it’s good business sense, and they make it a priority. Their well must be full in order to be of service to their clients, their colleagues, and their families and communities.

Do you know your own strengths?

I think if we know what specific skills are essential (and you’ve read this post so now you do), what our own business strengths and opportunities for growth are, and what trusted programs and experts support the development of each (that suit business owners like us), then we won’t feel so susceptible to the “authority” or allure of a sales page. And we’ll support real experts who are doing good work – not just money-making work.

Sometimes, it’s hard to know objectively what we’re doing well in business when our revenue or client numbers are telling us that something is wrong. Sometimes, it feels like we need every business coaching or marketing program out there – and we don’t.

I’ve developed a neat, little online self-assessment tool I’m super proud of. It takes about five minutes and will tell you how you’re scoring in each of the eight business skill areas listed above. After you’ve got your scores and can see where you’re strong and where the opportunities for development are, I also have a list of experts and programs recommended by the Pink Elephant Community, other small business owners like you and me, so you can choose experts to follow or programs to take based on information and reliable recommendations (no affiliates here!). I hope you find it very helpful.

This week, I was invited to a new friend’s home for the first time and it was so beautiful to be in her space. You get to know a person differently when you’ve been where they live, I think. When you get to smell their favourite spices in the kitchen and see the colour they chose for their living room walls.

I can’t help you smell my own beeswax candles or tulsi incense through the internet but I can still invite you into my office, my writing nest, and I can share with you the intimacy of my favourite art and colours, and you can meet Hazel the Cat who refused to let me photograph this room without her.

Welcome to my space.

After our daughter was born, I moved my workspace home. This is my writing room and dressing room, the place where I play with the colour and texture of words and websites and vintage sundresses (except in the winter, when it’s all about sweaters and scarves).

Would you like a tour?

I’d love to tell you some of the stories about the things in this room.

Let’s start with my desk, as it’s the heart of the space. My husband built it for me as a birthday present two years ago and every time I swivel my chair up to it, I think of him and feel thankful. (That’s a theme in this room.)

On my desk, you’ll find yellow candlesticks, a not-so-happy-this-season peace lily, my favourite pen, and a piece of amethyst that’s just the size of my palm.

And Hazel the Cat.

I’d like to overlook a rose garden one day or a Provençal field of sunflowers or an ocean, but right now my view is of my neighbours’ homes and recycling bins, so I (Keith) hung a reclaimed stained glass window to give me something pretty to look at and to give my sensitive self a little privacy and lots of sunlight.

One of my favourite parts of this room is its messy and happily imperfect gallery wall. When we moved in, there were two brass and glass sconces screwed into this wall. I tried to take them down right away but they felt really stuck so I thought I’d pretty them up instead and filled them with big artificial roses for whimsy. There are creative ways to make anything work, right? But then I had a conversation with a lady named Cecilia Moorcroft, who has a gift for clearing spaces (in all the ways that can mean) and she said something that stuck with me. She said I was ready for this room to be a place to honour my desires without compromise. I had confided to Cecilia that I hope to write a book here so in giving me permission to create a space without compromise she was honouring her sense of my commitment to this desire. (Does that make sense?)

So I yanked the sconces out and I filled the wall with the original art and prints I have been collecting for years and storing in drawers. Now, I see so many flowers, an owl for Athena, a typewriter my husband sketched as a writer’s talisman (I don’t want to go on about this but he’s totally great, isn’t he?), a reproduction of a painting that changed my life when I first saw it in Madrid, and a card of Mary in a shower of roses to remind me of the sacred work of mothering and of the divine feminine. So much red and pink and teal and gold, and so much beauty.

On the other side of the room is my red chaise, mismatched pillows, and a scarf from my time in India. There are two wardrobes in this room and the one beside my chaise has Keith’s formalwear. I like that there is just the tiniest hem of a tuxedo jacket peeking out between the doors, in this picture.

This is where I read, where I think, where I pray and where I write for personal projects. (Writing for clients happens in the desk chair with my feet grounded and back straight.)

Next up is the feng shui portion of our tour. I know that facing the door is a better “power position” but that meant having my back in the window, on display for the neighbours and chilled by winter drafts, which did not work for me. To compensate, I hung a chime at the entrance. I’m 5’2″ so this chime and the chandelier (an homage to my grandparents – it was a wedding gift to them and it’s plated in actual gold!) are high enough for me, but Keith brushes them with his head most times his 6’2″ height comes to visit. I like all the jangling for raising chi but he’s not totally on board yet.

What he is on board with is my having mountains represented in this space. For my rock-climbing husband, mountains are churches. I asked him to sketch me a favourite summit so I could hang it on the wall that is at my back, to offset the energy of the opening door and to have a sense of solid protection supporting me.
(Not pictured but also part of my feng shui-ing is a red beaded purse on top of the wardrobe in my prosperity corner. I bought it in New York City on my first trip there as an adult and the sight of it reminds me of bagels and slices and the sexy black heels I bought and wore there and how alive a city can make you feel.)

So now, dear reader, you’ve been in my home. I hope you have a sacred space for your important work, too, and I’m blowing you just a hint of virtual holy basil smoke to thank you for your kind visit.

A PINK ELEPHANT PRIMER ON WRITING THE ESSENTIAL PAGES OF A SERVICE-BASED SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE

If you’re a small business owner in a service-based or helping profession, your website is often your first welcome. It’s a friendly greeting to prospective clients and it’s a means of connecting you with the people you’re meant to help and serve. It doesn’t have to be poetry; in order to be effective, it simply needs to be clear and it needs to communicate the essentials with empathy. Not certain you’re sure what those essentials are or how to write with empathy? Then, read on. I’ve got a plan for you here that will help you write (or re-write) your own website in a weekend.

Friday night: Start small. Write the navigational menu.

I recommend your navigation bar – the menu that’s usually along the top of a website – be made up of these pages, in this order: Home | About | Services | Blog | Contact. This is a fairly standard ordering and because it follows an expected format, your website feels welcoming and easy to manage for first-time (and repeat) visitors. And that’s our first goal – to provide a kind, warm, stress-free welcome.

Your Friday homework:

1. Open a new document.

2. Type your navigational menu at the top of your file and then type in the other page titles. Tomorrow, when you come back to this, it’ll feel good to have this super-simple framework ready and waiting to be filled in.

Bonus website design tip:

I do not recommend using drop-down menus, as they force visitors to make decisions without any helpful information and that can be subtly stressful. We want our guests to feel at ease in their travels through our sites.

Saturday morning: Sip green tea and write your homepage.

The homepage is where I see the most mistakes in small business websites, mistakes that really hurt businesses, but the happy news is that they’re usually easy fixes. Open that document you started and under your Home heading, start typing…

1. Write a headline that speaks to the problem you solve or your unique point of view. For instance, for this Pink Elephant Academy website, my headline is: Marketing can be quiet, gentle and kind … and still be marketing. That tells you about my philosophy (quiet, kindness) and it tells you the basics of what I do (marketing). If I were a relationship coach, my headline might be a question: “Do you want to have a more loving marriage?” Ask yourself what those you help are seeking and speak in that language.

2. Write a paragraph that describes how they might be feeling right now. Demonstrate empathy for their current place of struggle.

3. Write a paragraph about who you are and how you help. This kind of clarity is so thoughtful for your readers, who may be feeling overwhelmed.

4. Include a bulleted list of your services. Yes, you have a separate Services page that site visitors can access through the top navigation, but we also want to give them a path there in the page content.

5. Include a clear “call to action” at the bottom of the page. What do you want your reader to do next? Book an appointment? Read your blog? Sign up for your ebook. Let them know so that they can feel gently guided through your site.

Bonus website design tip:

Include a professionally-taken photo of yourself on your homepage. It gives a face to the voice and makes the experience feel more like a conversation.

Bonus small business marketing tip:

Add a sign-up form and a generous opt-in gift to your website sidebar so that visitors have an easy way to keep in touch, and something that can help them right away without cost.

My most helpful homepage resource: I’ve written a comprehensive workbook for small business homepage writing that takes you through each step, swiftly and sweetly… if you use it this weekend, you might have more time for a Saturday brunch date.

Saturday afternoon: Make a pot of rose tea and write your About page.

Okay, so here’s the thing about writing the About page. It can feel hard. How can you be objective about yourself? If you’re not certain what to include and what to leave out, then you can run in mental circles of wondering, right? I totally get it. But we can make it manageable by having some content “buckets” and I’ll outline them in the writing tips below. So, open your document again and set your cursor below that About title.

1. Write a headline. This one’s much easier than your homepage’s because we can be straightforward. Here are a few options: About [your name], About [your business name], About [your name] and [your business name].

2. In the first paragraph, get straight to the point. Tell us 1) what you do and 2) who you do it for. You might use a subheading like “What I do.”

3. Tell us why. In a paragraph or two, share the story of how you came to be doing what you’re doing. Everyone loves stories, and small business owners usually have good ones with a lot of heart! You might want a subheading like “Why I do what I do” or “My story” or “The story of [business name].”

4. Do you have a lot of credentials that feel important? You could add a section called “My professional credentials” or something like that, and then list them. This section is optional.

My most helpful About page resource: When I write About pages for clients, I use my own The All-Important About Page writing workbook. It saves me so much time in figuring out where to start and what questions to answer. You may also find it helpful.

Your Sunday morning homework: complete your Contact page.

2. Write a sentence or two, encouraging site visitors to be in touch with questions or bookings. You might also want to include a line that lets them know when to expect to hear back.

3. Write your contact form. Common fields are: Name, Email, Message. You may also want to ask your correspondents to select the services they’re interested in, or to provide their estimated budget, or to provide their own website address. What information would be helpful to you to have right away so that you can respond to them most helpfully? Ask for that.

4. Include a heading that says something like, “Connect with me on social media” and include links to other places you hang out online.

5. Include your sign-up form with opt-in gift again (unless it’s already right there in the sidebar).

Bonus website design tips:

If your website uses the WordPress platform, there are easy plug-ins you can use to create contact forms. Contact Form 7 is one that’s really well-reviewed.

If your business is local, it’s also a great idea to include a Google Maps thumbnail on your Contact page, along with your address.

Sunday afternoon: I like a light mimosa with my Services overview page writing.

A lot of writers stress about the Services page as though all the pressure to be persuasive lives here, but if your homepage and About page are clear, the Services page nearly takes care of itself. I think we can knock out this first draft in an hour. You’re so close to being done!

Your Sunday afternoon homework: Write your Services overview page.

1. Type a descriptive headline that explains what you offer in brief. Think: Gentle Parenting Coaching Services or Vegan Nutrition and Weight-loss Coaching Programs or Small Business Website Design Packages. If you have a local business, it’s a good idea to add your location to the title to help with search engine optimization (SEO): Eco-friendly Landscape Design Services in Toronto.

2. Write a sentence or two that, again, tells what you do and for whom. Phrase it a little differently than you did in your About page, for variety. This is your first paragraph. If your business is local, it can be helpful to work in your geographic location in this paragraph too.

3. Do you offer more than one service, or offer your services in various formats/experiences? Then type those subheadings. For instance, you might offer home-study courses, in-person workshops, and private coaching – each of those would be a subheading. Or, maybe you’re a doula who offers prenatal support, birth support, and postpartum support – those are each clear subheadings, dividing up your services tidily.

4. For each of your subheadings, write one to two paragraphs, explaining 1) the goal/outcome of each service (“My Gentle Discipline coaching package provides an easy-to-follow, respectful discipline plan for your child that will make parenting feel more peaceful…”) 2) what to expect the experience to be like in practical terms (“This offering includes three one-hour coaching calls, recorded for your re-listening, plus a written plan, delivered by email three days after our first session, that includes specific activities and approaches to try with your child to address behavioural challenges…”).

5. Now, for each of these sections, you’ll need to write a “call to action” – the thing you want your reader to do with this information. Your service may be simple enough that it doesn’t require extra explanation, in which case, your call could be “>>Click here to book your appointment” (which could link to an online booking tool like Square Appointments – a service I haven’t used myself so I’m not vouching for… it just looks handy). Another appropriate call could be “>>Contact me directly with questions about this service” with a link to your Contact page.

6. Sprinkle in some testimonials. Your Services page is a great place to have a few lines from a few happy clients. It sets prospective clients at ease to read the stories and confidence of others, like them.

Bonus small business marketing tip:

Ideally, down the road, you’ll write a full offer page for each of your offerings, so your calls to action would become “>>Click here to read more about [service name].” (When you get to that point, Selling Sweetly is the sales page writing workbook I designed for business owners like us who want to communicate effectively and want our work to sound appealing but without sounding sales-y or being pushy, or you could read offer pages you like and try to emulate them.)

And now that the hard part is finished…

Reward yourself with some Sunday night “sleepy tea.” I found this recipe by Jenny McGruther on The Nourished Kitchen and with lemon balm, mint, fennel, licorice and flowers, I can barely imagine sipping something more beautiful.

Cheers to you! And thank you for writing with me.

Was this primer helpful?

If it was – and I hope it was – you could pay forward your thanks by writing the heck out of your website while thinking nice things about Pink Elephant, by sharing this post with someone who might find it useful too, or by contributing to the organic fruit market fund for our fruit-fiend toddler, Eleanor. xo

Each morning, my husband and I have coffee together. Today, while he was pouring mine into a white porcelain mug, I was quickly scrolling through my Facebook news-feed. Because I’m self-employed and because of the online company I keep, a lot of the sponsored posts are about business and marketing programs. Because you’re here on this page, that’s probably true for you too. I don’t have a problem with ads but I do have a problem – a very big problem – with a trend I’m seeing: The Glorification of More.

I see ad after ad with shiny business/marketing/sales coaches with big smiles and brags about how much money they make, how many figures – and they tell you and me that we could have this too (by learning their “secrets”). Some of them even use “spiritual” language and they invite “heart-centered businesses” and promise to teach how to use the “law of attraction” to “manifest” your “abundance.” They say it’s easy to do what they’ve done. And that’s the one thing that feels honest to me.

Because selling the promise of money to people is the easiest thing to sell in the world.

If you are not making “six figures” or “seven figures” or “$10,000 in 30 days”, it isn’t because you failed to properly manifest it, it isn’t because you aren’t good enough, it isn’t because you haven’t marketed “right” or learned the secrets of selling with free consultations or an automated sales funnel, or because you don’t have enough “premium offerings” or because you don’t feel an intrinsic sense of worth (that a coach implies they can find for you).

It may be because what you are selling is not as easy to sell as more money.

It may be because your services help vulnerable people with sensitive issues and they will not always be ready for you when you meet. They may have personal resistance to overcome. They may be nervous that hiring a nutritionist right now may mean they don’t have enough money for groceries for their children, or that they may have to choose between hiring a life coach and making the summer’s mortgage payments. These things are real. And if you aren’t financially rich right now, it may be because you’ve respected these considerations of your very human clients and potential clients and because you have refused to use tactics that compel or push or frighten.

And, holy hell, I do not want YOU, you who is being gentle and honest and compassionate and human with your prospective clients, to feel like you are failing at business and at being of service because of a number someone else tells you you could make based on what they’ve done. I don’t want you to feel “less than” because a business coach makes a million more dollars than you and takes selfies with Richard Branson (and, I’m sure he’s a fine fellow, but when did that become a barometer of personal success?).

This idea that we can manifest whatever we want is, to me, partly true. And that’s how we sometimes get hooked by these messages. We know that part of it feels right, and we’d all certainly appreciate ease where money is concerned.

What is being sold, though, is the idea of “more” and that misses, I think, a very vital aspect of true wealth: gratitude.

The Glorification of More tells you that what you have is not enough (and, ultimately, that YOU are not enough), then the pain you feel from having heard that message (in post after post after post, in sometimes subtle and insidious ways) is precisely what’s used to motivate you to buy. Ick! Infuriating ick!

You, who is not flawed. You, who is doing something hard and sometimes having a hard time with it (because you’re doing something hard). You, who is offering the world something other than more money.

I like money and I want everyone to receive money equal to the output of their energy, time, and care. I think that business and marketing and sales coaching can be helpful, when you need to get the basics. And there are some wonderful coaches! (Tad Hargrave and Racheal Baxter Cook and Jac McNeil and Leonie Dawson and Mark Silver all come quickly to mind, and I know there are others…)

But when I’m watching my husband stir cream into my coffee and I find myself doubting my contribution to our life together because another sponsored post told me my bank account should have different numbers than they do, when I stop feeling grateful for what I have, when I feel deficient because I have “enough” instead of having “more” – and I AM A BUSINESS AND MARKETING COACH MYSELF and I KNOW I KNOW ALL “THE SECRETS” and, therefore, should be immune to these sales tactics, shouldn’t I? – then I wonder how difficult it would be for anyone doing what we do to be bombarded by those messages and still honour enoughness. How painful it would be.

And here’s the thing. I believe that Enough is beautiful. I think it’s sacred. I believe it’s the true heart of joy, the true source of abundance.

A kind business ….

…is, first, an expression of genius.

And I mean genius in the late middle English sense. Spirit attendant on a person. Isn’t that beautiful? I believe we all come into this human experience with spirit attendant upon us, with Source/Nature/Mother/God/Love/Greater Power/Spirit-given gifts and that using those pure abilities in service to others is the essential foundation of kind business.

…spreads joy.

A kind business aims, ever, to delight.

…is fair.

A kind business prices its services fairly to its clients, to its greater industry, and to its owner (and the people who rely on that business owner).

…makes money.

Because money is so good for buying birthday presents and stamps for love letters and flowers for grandmothers. It’s so good for paying team members and other service providers. And it’s really, really good for giving away. A kind business knows how to receive, and release.

…nurtures human connection.

Through the shape of its services, through the wording of its emails, through the videos on its website and posters on its Facebook page, a business has a thousand opportunities to make its clients feel un-alone and welcome and wanted and understood.

…does good, and greater good.

A kind business seeks to improve the lives of its clients, and the people who aren’t its clients.

If you’re Canadian, you’ve probably received a lot of emails in the last few weeks, asking you to confirm your consent to continue hearing from various businesses. This is part of the new CASL legislation that goes into effect today (July 1, 2014) and if you email Canadians (even if you’re not Canadian), you need to know about it.

What I like about this Canadian anti-spam legislation is that it supports what I consider the best practices (and good manners) of permission-based email marketing. Requiring consent is not only nice and respectful, it’s the best way to encourage long-lasting, mutually-supportive relationships with your community.

Your email must have an easy unsubscribe mechanism (and unsubscribes must be honoured within 10 days)

Your email must contain a valid mailing address and either a telephone number, email address, or web address

You must have consent (and proof of consent) to email the Canadians on your list

You won’t be receiving a “consent required” email from Pink Elephant because we’ve always been compliant. If you receive mail from me, it’s because you requested it through Pink Elephant Academy or Pink Elephant Creative (and I love you for it, dear readers and friends!).

I adore coaches. I think they do some of the most important work in this world… they support us in becoming the best of ourselves. They midwife our dreams and desires. What a gift!

But I often see coaches making similar, easy-to-fix mistakes that, I think, are hurting their practices, their prospective clients, and their income potential.

Three of my marketing-writing-business tips for life coaches:

1. Call yourself a coach.

I know there have been some cute titles out there. Things that sound charming and fun. But I want you to call yourself a coach because people understand what that means. It’s clear. It’s direct. It’s stress-free for your reader. And there are already so many “catalysts” and “navigators” and [fill in the blank]+istas that those titles don’t quite feel original anymore. (And I KNOW you’re an original!)

2. Call yourself a coach for specific people. Or for specific situations. Or for specific people in specific situations.

I have said this a hundred times but when you have your arms open to everyone, no one feels special. I want your right-fit clients to immediately know you can help them (so that they can get the help they need) and I want them to feel your care and understanding, right from the first paragraphs of your website. These are the sorts of things I mean:

“I’m a dating coach for single men who want to be married.”
“I’m a life coach for women who want to quit their jobs and start their own businesses.”
“I’m a life coach for high school students planning their next steps after graduation.”
“I’m a parenting coach for couples who can’t agree on a discipline plan.”
“I’m a break-up coach for the newly heartbroken.”

Do you see what I mean about specificity? It’s really attractive to people. It helps them find their way, which is a great kindness.

3. Stop using the word “transition.”

Everyone is in transition, really. It’s become a word without real meaning. And I see it in the websites of well-intended coaches a lot. And it’s not helpful to the coach or prospective client; I even think it can be detrimental. When I read that someone coaches clients through “transitions” or “transitions, like divorce, a new baby, a death, a new job…”, I don’t feel like there’s any compassion for those individual circumstances, or any level of specialized expertise, and a sense of compassion and expertise are two essentials for choosing a coach.

Dear coaches, I want you to enjoy the credibility you deserve and I want you to serve as many people as you can manage, and, in my experience, the most effective way to do that is so simple, it’s overlooked on a hundred websites a day: tell the people you want to help what you do.

When Racheal from The Yogipreneur asked me to join the other writers in her ❤ Your Community Blog Tour, it was an easy yes. (Did you catch Cailen Ascher’s post yesterday? So great!) Hello, hello! to everyone on tour with us (and a special welcome to folks who are meeting me for the first time… I hope you’ll make yourself at home here).

I’ve seen lots of telesummits and online programs and e-books that promise to teach folks how to “get” 10,000 followers, and they always irk me a little bit. A small business doesn’t need 10,000 followers. Or 1,000 followers. A small business needs enthusiastic supporters. In my experience, you can have a comfortable, successful business with an email list of 200 (or even fewer), if those people have signed up because they are excited about exactly what you want to offer.

To feel supported by your community, support your community.

The biggest mistake I made in my own business (I used to be broke, if you don’t know that about me) is that I wanted to do everything for everyone. I have often said, “When your arms are open to everyone, no one feels special.” I offered marketing planning services to entrepreneurs and small businesses and I offered any kind of copywriting for anyone and I offered advertising agency request for proposal writing for corporations and non-profits. I’m really good at all of that stuff and have a lot of experience so of course that’s what I’d offer, right? Except, who could ever remember all that? And who would trust that I was a specialist in all those areas? And how could word of mouth ever work when I had so many different kinds of clients with different needs? It was a mess.

I’ll tell you exactly what I did that allowed me to attract a like-minded (and loving) community.

Step one: I got very specific about who I wanted to hang out with.

I went from “anyone who needed copywriting or marketing services” to “women in helping professions – like coaching, counseling, alternative health, birth support and the arts – who are running their own businesses and not making as much money as they need to support themselves, partly because they aren’t sure how to feel good about marketing.” Way more specific, yes? You can probably think of someone in your life who fits this description. You might even tell her that someone like me supports people that sound like her. (And lest you fear I’ve just cut off half the population; nope! the thing about getting really specific is that people “get” you quicker and will ask for exceptions… and let me tell you, the men who contact a business open about being dedicated to supporting women are totally cool guys.)

Step two: I decided on a service offering that would help my chosen community the most.

I know that one of the most powerful marketing tools is a business’ website, and I knew that without a lot of money to hire a professional designer and writer, that a lot of small business sites look pretty amateurish, which doesn’t instill confidence in a buyer, perpetuating the crummy revenue problem. I decided I could be a huge help by empowering my clients to re-write their own homepages to include essential marketing messages and content in a way that could feel friendly and good (to them and their readers). I ran homepage writing workshops and produced homepage writing workbooks (still my favourite thing on this site because of all the heart in it!), and I offered homepage writing services. I became the homepage lady.

Step three: I gave a gift.

I made a homepage assessment quiz called “How happy is your homepage?” available for download. It’s short, it’s sweet and it can point out serious gaps in a homepage that, if filled, can start to bring in more revenue. Recipients opt-in to a newsletter subscription, where I share my guilt-free marketing advice, and discount codes for the bookstore.

Step four: Tell people what you’re doing, consistently.

I’m most comfortable (and HAPPY!) behind a keyboard so I let my community know what I’m doing through my newsletter and Facebook. Every six weeks or so, I also tweet. And that’s it. But I’m reliable about it. Consistent. People know what I’m about. And I try to be generous. I give tips and advice I hope are useful. Everything I do is about: 1) helping, 2) letting people get to know me.

The good news is that the people who like your Facebook page and the people who subscribe to your newsletter and the people who buy your stuff are people, not a market. Not a list. Not a bunch of potential sales. People. And you already know how to talk to people.

When I first made these changes, I had about 250 people signed up to my newsletter. Within three years, I had 2,500. At 250, because my offering was so specific, I had enough supporters to have a sustainable business. Today, it’s just a little easier. So, go easy on yourself about the numbers if you’re just starting out. Focus on being of service to the people you’re meant to serve, and the rest will follow. Organically. Sustainably.

I have always had a thing for underdogs and I think that’s one of the reasons I got into marketing.

A lot of nice people feel perfectly comfortable saying things like, “I hate marketing.” And I get it. In the name of Marketing, people have done some easy to dislike stuff. They’ve made infomercials and pushy website sales pages, the flyers we don’t want in our mailboxes and the scripts of telemarketers calling at dinner time, billboards in parks and cellulite cream ads in our daughter’s magazines. Yuck, right?

But I need to raise my hand here and say a word or two on behalf of dear, ol’ Marketing.

Marketing is also the recipes a nutritionist shares on her blog that gets her readers excited about eating well. Marketing is the About page on a website that makes readers with similar backgrounds feel understood, sometimes for the first time in their lives. Marketing is the free e-book with sleep tips that gives a sleep-deprived new mother her first glimpse of hope. Marketing is a thank-you email. Marketing is the scholarship offered to someone who really, really needs a learning program but can’t afford it. Marketing is sponsoring a soccer team of three-year-olds so parents don’t have the extra expense of jerseys. Marketing is sharing a personal story on Facebook that connects a whole community. Marketing is hosting a free support circle for the grief-stricken or heartbroken. Marketing is a book written from the heart.

Marketing is when a business lets people know who they are and how they can help. That’s it.

Marketing is a means of connection. It can nurture relationships. It can comfort those who need comfort. It can be kind. It can be happy. It can be funny. It can be beautiful. It can be art.

It is an invitation to be generous and to be creative. (And I know that if you’re here reading this, you are both.)

Dear thoughtful, conscientious business owner, please don’t hate on Marketing. It’s you, you doing good in the world, you being of service, it’s you whose marketing the world needs most of all. It’s you we want to hear from.